I don't even know what day it is.

After Giddeon's C-section I brought her and the pups home and got them settled in. All seemed well. They were nursing and looked content. Sun night it all started going downhill and fast. I lost 2 puppies. The blue and the split faced pup. What is happening??? Guess I should not have posted that the 2 day old collie pups were boring:)

In all the litters I have had I have only lost one pup, and that was because the bitch layed on it.I have been beyond lucky with the litters I have had and always count my blessings.

Back to the ordeal.

So I started the pups on antibiotics after I lost the 2 pups and noticed the remaining 4 were just not acting normal. I was putting the pups to nurse every 2 hours. They were nursing but not well. So I began bottle feeding to supplement the pups. They still seemed to not be thriving.I have lost track of days so not sure what was done when.

The pups were crying especially the sable merle girl… first thought was gas. So I gave them infant gas drops.

The little sable merle girl was going downhill. I have never tube fed and to be honest was afraid to do it.

It was the middle of the night and I had nothing to lose as the litter was not looking good. I remembered that we had bought Myra savant-Harris' book PUPPY INTENSIVE CARE. So I pulled it out and read about sick puppies and tube feeding.

Our kitchen has been turned into a puppy neonatal ward.

I bit the bullet and started tube feeding the pups and still kept them on Giddeon so they wouldn't lose the suckling reflex. They still were not as vigourous as they should be. They would nurse for a few seconds and stop. They were not acting like normal puppies.

Now the little sable merle girl was layed stretched out flat a gasping. What a horrible feeling. What a sad thing to watch. Now I am exhausted from no sleep and heartbroken with the thought of losing this entire litter of beautiful precious puppies.

The internet is amazing. I had been researching stuff as it would come up. Now I was searching for more info on tube feeding. I came across the Leerburg site. What an amazing site. What a wealth of down to earth easy to understand information. Thank God for people taking the time to write on their sites and blogs so that people all over the world can learn and gain more experience. Here is the link to the Leerburg site  Treating a sick newborn puppy

I decided that what I was doing was not enough and certainly not working….helping, yes, but not working.

I tweaked the homemade formula I was using, took the pups away from Giddeon 100%, put them in a smaller box and upped the amount I was feeding according to the feeding chart posted on the Leerburg site. The pups are still on antibiotics and Nature's Farmacy Fading Puppy Formula which contains probiotics.

I read on another site to make sure and burp the pups after tubing.

I was thinking that Giddeon's milk must be bad.

Well as of tonight the pups are all looking great… fat and sassy. They are all gaining weight and pooping and peeing. I am super happy that the sable merle girl is getting stonger and no longer gasping or laying flat out.

I am not really sure when I will feel we are out of the woods but I do know that I feel much better after tonight's  9:00 p.m. feeding. Sable merle girls was trying to nurse off my hand.

I have learned more about puppies with this litter than all my other litters put together. It's been hard but lessons are good.

I usually name the pups by now and I do have names for them. I have just been too crazed trying to help them survive and I really didn't was to post …. we have 6, now we have 4, now we have ????

Thank you to everyone that has said prayers, white light and keeping us all in your thoughts.